Other Records by Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam

Lost Dogs

14-year old music
fans have no idea how good they have it these days. Ten years ago the only
things I was able to use the Internet for were text based bulletin boards
and e-mail via the Prodigy service (a clunky predecessor to AOL, which would
soon be overrun into obscurity by the latter). Instead of being able to use
any array of file sharing programs to acquire Pearl Jam B-sides, my friends
and I were forced to seek out those $30 import CDs for a taste of pseudo-legendary
songs such as "Wash", "Footsteps", and "Dirty Frank",
all of which are included on Lost Dogs. Hailing mostly from tiny record
companies in Italy, such CDs usually featured hideously makeshift album art
(lots of orange), a handful of "rare" live tracks probably ripped
from a radio broadcast, the aforementioned B-sides, and maybe one or two tracks
that weren't even performed by Pearl Jam, despite being listed as such. It's
not as if the Web put such artifacts out of existence entirely (its still
not too difficult to find $30 Radiohead "rarities" albums that feature
songs like a clearly Bono sung "Sunday Bloody Sunday" labeled as
a RH cover), but most 14-year olds these days are too computer savvy to purchase
them.

Granted, the singles
market was still in full swing in the early 90's, so while I could've had
a bunch of the earlier Pearl Jam B-sides simply by purchasing the CD singles
from the Ten and Vs. records, that would've been pricey and
not nearly as illicit and cool as buying an import. But with the release of
Lost Dogs, Pearl Jam is beating the World Wide Web/imports market at
its own game by giving the listener 30 songs compiled from B-sides, holiday
fan club singles and compilation one-offs. And at a reasonable price too!
The one I purchased from a chain retailer on Manhattan's Upper East Side was
a measly 13 bucks. And while the band hasn't emptied the vaults completely
(no Singles soundtrack, no Vitalogy-era and frustratingly, no "Leatherman"),
the quality of the songs on Lost Dogs is considerable, catapulting
it into the rare league of Pisces Iscariot-like B-sides compilations
that have the dubious distinction of being more enjoyable to listen to than
some of the parent band's official releases.

I won't deny that
I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan, and even share in the minority view that the band
has never made a truly bad record. That being said, it's not like Binaural
and Riot Act can hold a candle to Ten or Vitalogy, but
Lost Dogs proves there were songs left off of the former albums that
could have (should have?) significantly increased their quality. While Lost
Dogs contains most of the expected Ten-era gems such as "Wash",
"Alone", and a bare bones version of traditional concert closer
"Yellow Ledbetter", it's recent B-sides such as "U", "Other
Side" and "Undone" that surprise the listener with their quality
(and any of which would've been preferred to recent career embarrassments
like "Evacuation" and "Bushleaguer"). Lost Dogs
also has the positive effect of snatching some excellent one-off tracks ("Leavin'
Here", "Gremmie out of Control") from their mother albums,
which is fortunate because you ain't finding a copy of the "Home Alive"
compilation any time soon.

In terms of sequencing,
Lost Dogs eschews chronological order in favor of establishing mood
and flow, which in addition to working to its benefit, allows the listener
to play the fun game of "let's guess what album this is from!" based
off of the production. Furthermore, disc one tends to be dominated by rockers,
while the second disc is largely comprised of ballads. The sequencing on disc
two is particularly fantastic, the first 7 or so songs being among the most
listenable of Pearl Jam's career, and leaving the listener to wonder how in
the hell gorgeous ballads like "Fatal", "Other Side" and
fan favorite "Hard to Imagine" were left off of the albums they
were intended for (thorough liner notes actually go a long way towards clearing
this up, but still). Of course, no B-side collection worth its salt would
be without a few good-natured goofs not exactly written for mass consumption,
and Lost Dogs has a handful of these, in particular Jeff Ament's rapped
tribute to 70's baller Lew Alcindor, a radio show tribute to the Bee Girl
from the Blind Melon video, and a song where Stone Gossard "sings."
Unlike say, R.E.M.'s notorious (if fun) Dead Letter Office however,
the goofs aren't annoying because they're significantly outnumbered by actual
songs.

I don't see how
anyone who thinks that they might be interested in purchasing Lost Dogs
could be disappointed. You get 30 Pearl Jam songs, the majority of which are
excellent, at the price of a single CD. Pearl Jam has always had a deserved
reputation for being fan friendly, and Lost Dogs will do nothing to
diminish that. And if you can find a cheap copy of the Given to Fly
single in a used bin, "Leatherman" is well worth a few bucks.